Regular season ends for Hodag bowlers

The Rhinelander Area Youth Bowling Club’s high school boys’ and girls’ teams wrapped up regular season competition on Sunday in the Stevens Point area.

The Rhinelander/Three Lakes boys’ squad split its matches, defeating Merrill 7-2 before losing to conference champion Antigo 7-2 at 5-Star Lanes in Plover. The Hodag girls dropped a pair of 7-2 decisions to the Manawa and D.C. Everest co-ops on Sunday at Skipp’s Bowl in Stevens Point.

The Hodag boys came out with one of their best matches of the season against the Bluejays, averaging 185.1 pins per game over the nine-game baker series while filling 79% of their frames. Rhinelander won five of the first six games in the match to wrap-up the dual. The Hodags had games of 193 and 199 as they won the first two games and then ran games 4-6 with scores of 181, 200 and 224. 

“That match was probably one of the stronger, most consistent of matches that we had,” coach Mike Bourcier said. “They bowled really well and it was good. Overall, they were picking all the spares up, which is where you can win the games.”

The Hodags left a few close games on the table early in the second match against Antigo and that proved costly once the Robins began to fire on all cylinders late in the going. Rhinelander opened with 215-191 win in Game 1, and had a 178-167 win in Game 4 after junior Dom Hakala struck out in the 10th frame, but close 161-145 and 179-158 losses in Games 3 and 5 had the Hodags down 3-2 in the match. 

Antigo caught fire from there, posting scores of 222, 227 and 235 over the next three games to lock up the match. 

“We should’ve been 4-1 right there. I mean they were beatable,” Bourcier said.

The Hodags averaged 164.6 pins and filled 67.8% of their frames in the Antigo match. 

Alex Hall, the team’s lone senior, led the way, filling 30 of his 36 frames on the day with 14 strikes. Blake Klingen was 29 of 36 with 15 strikes. Oren Alsager and Hakala were both 25 of 36 with 16 and 11 strikes, respectively. Jackson Fuss was 23 of 26 with 13 strikes. 

Across town, the Hodag girls suffered a number close game defeats in both of its losses. Rhinelander averaged 139.4 pins and filled 52.2% of its frames against the Manawa co-op, pulling out close wins of139-136 in Game 2 and 140-135 in Game 8, but the team had four losses by 21 pins or fewer, including a 158-157 loss in Game 6 and a 139-137 loss in Game 7.

It was a similar story against the D.C. Everest/Wittenberg co-op. Rhinelander averaged 146.9 pins and filled 63.3% of its frames — and had a total pinfall only 32 pins fewer than the Evergreens — but suffered five losses by 21 pins or fewer. The teams wins were a 167-121 victory in Game 1 and a 200-140 win in Game 6.

“It’s frustrating to lose like this, but the girls fought hard,” coach Cory Dellenbach said. “Pins just were not falling our way tonight. All of the girls had some nice pocket hits, but left single pins and splits up.”

Johanna Dellenbach was limited on Sunday due to illness, but managed to fill 16 of her 22 frames with six strikes. Addison Habeck went 23 of 36 with eight strikes, Alyssa Habeck was 22 of 36 with seven strikes, Alexia Corey-Luse was 16 of 26 with five strikes, Oliver Doppke went 12 of 24 with four strikes, Katrina Roof was 12 of 26 with two strikes and Joselyn Sorensen was 3 of 10 with a pair of strikes. 

The results officially eliminated the Hodags from qualifying for either the team or individual portions of next month’s WiHSBC State Meet. The Hodags boys wound up 4-6 on District 9 D2 boys/co-ed play while the Hodags girls finished 2-8 in the D9 girls’ standings. The top three D2 boys’ teams and the top D2 girls’ team advanced.

Individually, Hakala and Klingen were the top bowlers on the boys’ side. Hakala was 31sr in the D9 boys’ standings with a 60.99 Baker Equivalency Rating while Klingen was 33rd with a 60.62 BER. Johanna Dellenbach was eighth in the girls’ standings with a 58.66 BER. The top 10 boys and top five girls advanced on to next month’s state meet. 

The season is not entirely over for the Hodag bowlers, who will have a chance to take part in the District 9 singles tournament held Feb. 28 to March 2 at North Star Lanes in Antigo. The bowlers will compete individually in flights based on their season-long statistics for a chance to win scholarship money. 

Middle schoolers win

The Rhinelander middle school squad won its first six games on Sunday and cruised to a 6-1 win over Antigo’s No. 3 middle school team at 5-Star Lanes. 

The Hodags averaged 123 pins per game and filled 41.4% of their frames on the day. Their high score of the day was a 136 in Game 1, which it needed to edge the Robins by three pins. Antigo managed to break 100 only once in the next five games and the Hodags cruised to the win. 

“After we won our fourth, I started rotating kids into different positions so they each got a taste of something new. Some of them really stress about that 5th & 10th spot, so it’s nice to get them there and used to it when I can,” coach Dellenbach said. “This middle school team is really starting to come into their own and find their identity. All of the kids are improving and it’s been fun watching them so far this year.”

Natalie Dellenbach led the squad, filing 10 of her 14 frames with a pair of strikes. Brighton Walkowski was 8 of 14 with a strike, Charlotte Preuss was 7 of 14 with five strikes, Xane Kallio was 3 of 14 with two strikes and Logan Johnson was 1 of 14 with a strike. 

The Hodag middle schoolers improved to 2-3 on the year with the win and will compete in the final two matches of their schedule March 16 in Antigo.